Campbell: I'm just an extension of Tony

Alastair Campbell today expresses a measure of regret over his fierce attacks on the BBC following publication of the Hutton report and admits the government could have handled the David Kelly affair differently.

In an interview with the Guardian, Mr Campbell insists he had not meant to appear exultant at the BBC's plight. "I didn't intend to come over as hard and certainly not triumphalist," he says. "When I got the report I felt no sense of triumphalism at all."

Mr Campbell, the prime minister's former communications director, adds: "I don't take any pleasure in seeing the BBC in its current state."

On the government's management of the Kelly affair before the scientist took his life, Mr Campbell concedes: "I think there were areas where we could have done things differently."

He adds: "Look ... the thing I regret most of all is actually that somebody died and I think about that a lot."

Mr Campbell also takes some personal blame for the souring of relations between the government and the media at large.

"I do wonder what we could have done differently. I do think in general about how we managed to get ourselves into such a bad position vis-à-vis the media, and I've got no doubt some of that is down to me".

Immediately following the publication of the Hutton report, Mr Campbell went on the offensive against the BBC, saying that had the government been criticised as strongly as the BBC was there would have been "several resignations at several levels".

The chairman of the corporation, Gavyn Davies, stepped down soon afterwards, while the BBC's director general, Greg Dyke, and the reporter at the centre of the controversy, the Today correspondent Andrew Gilligan, followed.

Mr Campbell says in his first major interview since the Hutton report that he was not calling for scalps but making "just an observation".

He says: "Perhaps I underestimated how shell-shocked the BBC would be by the findings."

The experience left regrets. "Gavyn Davies was the second biggest sponsor of my marathon. After the '97 election we went down to stay with Gavyn and Sue [Nye] - now that is a major experience, that's friendship and I feel bad about the fact that he's, you know, I imagine sitting there thinking 'there's one friendship out the window'." Mr Campbell and Mr Davies have not spoken since the infamous Gilligan broadcast.

Asked if he felt there was any fault on the side of the government during the Kelly affair, he replies: "I'm not prepared to play this game that you guys want us to play, which is to say we're all as bad as each other. You're saying [the BBC] admitted that they got this wrong and that wrong and that wrong. That's because they did.

"I think there were areas where we could have done things differently but I'm not going to sit here and beat my chest for the sake of you guys."

On the deterioration of relations between the media and the government, Mr Campbell says Mr Blair ap pointed him because "I'm Labour to my fingertips" and because he had "drive and energy and creativity" and a "capacity for very hard work".

He adds: "I do think that some of those qualities that made me a positive factor for Tony and the Labour party and the Labour government were in part responsible for the poisoning of relations with the media."

Later he says: "I'm very tribal ... I'm Labour, I'm Burnley, I'm Campbell. I feel it all very deeply."

There is a certain irony to Mr Campbell's new career as a part-time journalist. In response to Hutton's findings he said: "Having been in both journalism and politics, I would say this: if the public knew the truth about politicians they would be pleasantly surprised. If the public knew the truth about the way certain sections of our media operate, they would be absolutely horrified."

So why now is he writing in the Saturday edition of the Times? "I haven't really gone back into the media, the only thing I'm doing is a sports column. Fiona [Millar, his partner] filled in a form for me the other day. She had to fill in occupation and she put 'journalist'. I said, 'Cross that out!' she said, 'What shall I put?' I said, 'Dunno, just not that.'

The column is one strand of his new portfolio. There is also his Audience With ... evenings, a busy schedule of after dinner speeches, fundraising for leukaemia research, fundraising for Burnley football club, and regular talks at schools and universities.

Mr Campbell says he does not hanker after the "limos and the jets" but adds: "I do miss Tony. Tony and I had a never-ending conversation that went on for nine years. We rarely said hello or goodbye or I'll see you later because the conversation never stopped."

He describes Mr Blair as a "huge historical figure", the chancellor, Gordon Brown, as a "huge figure" and the deputy prime minister, John Prescott, as a "big historical figure."

Mr Campbell concludes: "I'm just an extension of Tony. That's what I am. And I did a job for him and I think ... I did a good job. But there were times when I didn't do such a good job. But I said on the day I left that the good memories outweighed the bad."